Moscow on Monday (1 October) said low turnout in the referendum on Macedonia's name change renders it invalid, adding that lack of interest means that the population has boycotted a decision "forced" upon it.

Macedonian voters backed a plan to rename the country aimed at ending a decades-long spat with Greece and unlocking a path to NATO and EU membership, with the West welcoming the result although the referendum was marred by low turnout.

Two days before a crucial referendum that could open the doors of Macedonia to NATO and EU membership, an official from Skopje speaking in Brussels on Friday (28 September) made it clear that the authorities will declare the result as legitimate even in case of a low turnout.

Macedonia and Greece yesterday (12 June) resolved a nearly three-decade row by agreeing to the name Republic of North Macedonia, opening the road for the landlocked country to start EU accession talks and to join NATO. Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran...

The opposition VMRO-DPMNE of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in Skopje, possibly encouraged by Russia, is trying to hinder the resolution of a name dispute with Greece that has blocked the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's (FYROM) progress in joining NATO and the European Union.

The EU played host Thursday (4 May) to Macedonia's new parliamentary speaker, ethnic Albanian Talat Xhaferi, in a gesture of support for the opposition as the unstable Balkan nation struggles to form a government.

Thousands of nationalist demonstrators of the so-called “Civil Initiative for a United Macedonia” resumed their protests in Skopje yesterday (2 May) against a plan for a coalition government that includes ethnic Albanian parties, five days after they burst into parliament and assaulted lawmakers.

Speaking to EURACTIV.com, Russia’s Ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, criticised the European Commission’s handling of the crises in Macedonia and Kosovo, and regretted the “hysteria” over alleged Russian interference in Montenegro.

Macedonia's political crisis deepened yesterday (1 March) as opposition leader Zoran Zaev accused President Gjorge Ivanov of fomenting a "coup d’état" by refusing to give him the mandate for forming a government.

Under international pressure, the Macedonian parliament yesterday (19 May) changed the law to enable President Gjorge Ivanov to revoke pardons he granted to more than 50 people implicated in a wiretapping scandal that has shaken Macedonian politics.

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